Fallout: Equestria - Most Dangerous Game

Prologue:

A buzzing alarm sounded, summoning a pair of perked ears.

Urg, so early?

Somewhere underneath the large nest of pillows and blankets sitting nearby, movement stirred. In a flash, a small, greenish glow manifested over the top of a nearby pipbuck, while a forehoof swatted outward to switch off the alarm. In a crack between the bundle of quilts, two yellow eyes glared at the encroaching sunlight like it was some spiteful foe.

I swear, the nights feel like they’re getting shorter and shorter every day. She thought, moments before her mint green snout poked free.

She abruptly rose, violently shaking off the mass of silky comfort, casting pillows and plushies about the room like a fluffy hurricane. Standing amidst the chaos, the magnificent, light green kirin, yawned and rubbed sleep from her eyes. One glance into a nearby mirror, however, seeing her frazzled mane, proved that describing herself as magnificent, wasn’t quite the right word.

Her name was Jadefire. Her parents having named her after one of her supposed ancestors who’d had many dalliances with dragons. She was rather unsure how much of that was true, however, as many of those stories were indeed as far-fetched as they sounded. Atop her head, her wild emerald-green mane looked more like a mass of tangled vines, ready to attack anyone nearby.

A quick shower, a few minutes of brushing, and pilling it into a tight bun fixed that issue, as well as seeing her minty coat was clean for the day. After putting on her pipbuck, and slipping into a nice business uniform, she scooped up her modest saddle bags, and headed out the door to work. The nearby train to a small suburb just outside San Prancsisco’s Ministry district, like she took every morning, was waiting at the station, right on time.

“Damn,” she cursed to no pony but herself as she realized. “Forgot breakfast again!”

Her stomach gave an audible protest, growling like she was suddenly starved.

Urg, everyone’s gonna hear that! She thought, her mane prickling with self-awareness as she stepped aboard the train. All I have to be is presentable, why is that always so hard?

Either way, such thoughts were quickly placated when a unicorn mare pushing a trolley full of coffee, tea, and an assortment of breakfast pastries came down the aisle. Deciding a blueberry muffin should be enough, the kirin nibbled at the soft treat as she looked over the documents tightly packed into her saddle bags. Her pip buck made such a task easy, a new marvel of arcane-technology. She simply held up her foreleg and scrolled through the various menus before finding her notes.

At least some things can be easy. She inwardly remarked, thankful for Stable-Tec’s ingenuity as she considered her work. Now, where did I leave off last night?

She did as she always did, worked at every moment she got, until after about half an hour or so, she finally arrived on site. Stepping off the train with the rest of the commuters. Normally, with the war on, one would assume a foreigner like a kirin would draw many unwanted stares and glances, the subject of much deceitful gossip and distrust. While there was a small number of bigots, her kind had allied with the ponies of Equestria recently in the conflict. Due to growing hostility from the Cesar of Rome, and the Kirin land’s proximity to Zebrica, the dragon-ponies had no love for the enemy. Finding mutual feelings in Princess Luna, and her new ministries, the Draco-equine folk were common in Equestria’s northwest regions.

Nowadays, nirik berserkers and pyrocasters were fighting on the front lines. Serving as valuable shock troops in critical, large-scale battles. Jadefire, however, was as far from her flaming, demonic form as a butterfly was from a dragon. She’d always had a better level of control when it came to her darker side. While true, she had gone nirik before, what kirin hadn’t? Anger often got the better of most of them at times. The important thing was not letting herself get too lost in the moment. If a kirin stuck to that philosophy, they’d never go full nirik, never lose themselves to the berserker’s fiery rage.

You never go full nirik. She remarked, at the advent of that thought, just as she always did. Calm, collected, and presentable, Jade. As always.

Her tight-fit suit, snug to her shoulders and lean rump, coupled with neat tie and mane helped dismiss the thought of kirin that had sacrificed their morals and even sanity for the war effort. With that in mind, she entered the front lobby of the Ministry of Awesome. A vast, towering building that radiated the same proud, boastful energy as the prismatic pegasus to have founded it.

“Urgh,” she groaned, seeing the large sign boasting the ministry’s stark name in glaring rainbow lights as she entered through the multitude of turntables and revolving glass doors.

She was never a fan of the name; ‘Ministry of Awesome’. Finding it to be too juvenile and immature in nature. As evident by most of the world viewing them as a joke simply conjured to boost the head mare’s ego. Despite the brash signs, the building itself looked like little more than a well-fortified warehouse. But once inside and through the right doors, down a few dozen flights of stairs, one saw the real ministry.

Shiny on the inside, cold and gray deep down at the core. She couldn’t help but think every time she delved deep into the complex’s steely corridors.

Many thought the most boastful and cocky of the six ministry mares had done little with her department, and while that was true at first, she’d become much more involved over the years, while seemingly being anything but. Twilight had her own project at Mareiposa, while Pinkie Pie and Rarity did their best to keep enemy influence out of the realm by any means.

Rainbow Dash’s ministry, however, was attempting to do far grander things. It was no secret to those in the know that the creation of superior soldiers was becoming necessary as the war continued to escalate. There were whispers of alicorn projects, ponies turned into goddesses with arcane-chemistry and science. The Ministry of Awesome, with all of its own secrets, had similar ambitions.

Ponies playing goddess. She inwardly expressed her true feelings. Though if they can give us control, hope? She really didn’t want to think about the form of hope it offered her.

Regardless, she finally came upon a smooth rectangle in the wall, the seamless panel blended almost perfectly into the steel sheet. If not for her trained eyes, and the fact she made this trip almost every day, she’d never have even spotted it. Yet with a scan of her forehoof on the nearby panel the door slid open. Beyond, was the cold, steely interior of a service elevator, not too dissimilar from that deep in the bowels of some mine shaft. Either way, she was presented with two buttons: ‘up’ or ‘down’. As always, her forehoof tapped the button to descend without even thinking about it.

They really need to make a faster route. She thought, covering a yawn with her forehoof as rocky walls rolled by. What’s it been, almost two hours?

After what many would consider a daunting plummet into the earth, she eventually reached her stop, several minutes deeper than most ponies could ever consider. Yet her trip was still not over, the elevator giving a metallic groan as she stepped off onto a smooth concrete platform. Like most things down here, the monorail station was carved from the rock, like an unnaturally sheer extension of the cavern. This place had been constructed for practicality, not comfort, the same kind of logic Rainbow Dash seemed to live by. Just like the train above, a hiss rattled along the rails before the carriage finally glided into the station, door opening with a low woosh.

Offering nods and smiles to the few other workers, Jade boarded as she did every day. Weary mind almost on autopilot as much as the vehicle in which she sat as she watched more rock drift by outside. Caverns filled with construction briefly flash through cracks and crevasses in the walls, whole hordes of scaffold, concrete, and excavators manned by ponies as the Ministry District expanded downward as much as it did upward. Many said it was like a second city in itself down here, as signs marked the different stops, until finally, the train came to a halt. The woosh of the doors was accompanied by the clang of metal and distant drilling, the music of progress that was the symphony beneath most of wartime Equestria.

Seeing ponies trot ahead of her like drones, taking turns into yet more corridors, she could almost imagine the vast web of tunnels above, all locked away under the south end of the Pransisco Bay. Either way, the vault before her marked the highly secure entrance to the San Pransisco branch, R&D labs of the Ministry of Awesome, the research hub to which she was assigned. Scanning her forehoof once again to gain entry, before being identified by the pair of ultra-sentinels that stood sentry, Jade passed a few of the many projects that sat neatly around the polished, clinically-white room. Bio subjects in tanks, jars, or robotics upon tables tended to by spider-like, robo-arms. Among them were whole R&D wings dedicated to stealth suit prototypes, enhancement potions, and cybernetic upgrades. Even research into minor mega-spells, to be passed onto test sectors elsewhere in Equestria.

There were advanced laser weapons intended for flight as well as energy blades designed to fit Shadow Bolt wings. The Scorpion tail intended to fit the advanced flight power armor first envisioned by the Ministry of Image was a particularly wicked sight as Jade finally reached her office, far at the rear of the room. Plopping her tail down behind her desk and peered out of the barred forward windows at yet more research facilities beyond.

One area that caught her particular interest was that designated for support teams and field agents. It was an area above the main field where many ponies, and kirin alike analyzed and sifted through all the data field teams had collected. Using experimental implants and augments to do so at an impossibly fast rate. So too, was it her job to find patterns in the code, compiling profiles of any individuals the ministry deemed to be of particular interest. Given that the ponies serving on such teams were already advanced enough, picking out the cream of the crop, left their elite truly superior to most others. Perfect candidates for the more combat-oriented cybernetic programs.

Jadefire had been selected with just as much care and deliberation from her teams. She had a knack for looking at a situation, seeing a pattern, then following it to its most likely conclusion. As if her brain were a tiny computer all its own, she saw numbers and data flow before her like the world were really just one big program. It was a trait very uncommon among her kind, once again, something that separated her from the nirik she dreaded becoming.

Don’t think about that Jade, just focus on work, like always. To lose her intellect like that would be her biggest nightmare. I’m in control of my anger and my life, not my emotions.

That being said, a small part of her longed for fieldwork. The only unfortunate part of that was the few Kirin operatives the Equestrian military cared for were savage berserkers. Those of her kind, unable to charge enemy lines as fiery shock troops, sowing death, and chaos as they went, drew far more attention to themselves. Despite the vast number of creatures the zebra legions employed, kirin were not among them. Therefore, there was no doubt to her enemies of where her allegiances lay, unlike griffins and dogs.

She almost hated the fact, detested her reality stuck so close to her dream, yet blocked by cold concrete walls and paperwork. ‘Almost’ being the keyword, and unlike most, her position offered her, and a few others, a glimpse of what may be coming. She could see the writing on the walls clear as day. She and those fortunate few others privy, had already started looking for ways to survive the impending apocalypse.

The idea filled her with bitter dread and anger, yet a cold sympathy every time she wandered down a street to see ponies content with their day. She wished she could tell them, yet she’d end up in a Ministry of Moral prison in seconds. It was far easier to declare a non-pony a bigot, doom preacher, or zebra sympathizer. There were ponies here she cared about, even loved, yet she couldn’t say a word. Therefore, she waited, like she was a mare on death row, watching the gun directed at Equestria’s head as she dreaded the day the bombs would fall. The whole idea sent a shiver down her spine, she’d never thought it would come to that.

It won’t, it can’t. Not yet, it’s too soon. She hoped she was right about that; sure the war would have to escalate to an utter stalemate before the buttons were pressed. Just calm down and think, go over the plan again, if you must.

She let out a small breath, rubbing her forehooves together nervously as she glanced right. To where her theorized escape lay in the adjacent room. It was never something she was supposed to have access to, yet relationships with its designer provided a few perks. Besides, after the end who would be left to care? Either way, clearance, and certification would be the last of her worries. Not only was it classified to the highest degree, but it was still highly experimental. The prized project of the lab technicians, her companion, a cute little blue pegasus named Datastream, had informed her many times that, although it was untested, the Al-One: C-Zero-Four-N body was all primed and good to go.

She hated to think she’d betray her colleague like that. That all she’d thought about when she’d been told there was a thing like that right next door, was how she could use it to escape the end of the world. She’d have done the same for Data in a heartbeat if she could, often dreaming of a life where the two of them were free of the war and happy. Yet even the pegasus denied the end, focused on little more than her work as if her life also depended on it.

But what else can I do? No pony will listen to me! She thought, in addition to the snider thoughts. But what if Data and I have the same plans?

It made her feel sick to imagine that about a mare she genuinely cared for, but there were no regulations, no protocols, no slots in a stable for her if the end came. No, the country she’d pledged her life to would just leave her to burn in balefire with the rest, she had to do what she could to survive, no matter what.

All the project needed was a donor. This new ‘body’ as Data called it, needed someone’s mind to fill the space technology alone could not. It was not some robotic shell. A simple tool given some mockery of self-awareness like a Ponytron or Sentinel. It was a highly advanced, synthetic construction of metals, polymer, and the most advanced cybernetics the ministry could muster. With only the briefest hints of biological components left to betray its original nature.

Not only that, but as the project had aimed to construct such things in the image of alicorns, the prototype apparently offered all the benefits of an earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn with hardly any of the drawbacks.

At least if you ask Data, that mare will never admit there are hidden flaws in her design. Jade thought, sure it could not be so flawless. I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it, not like I can ask everything without coming off as suspicious.

The primary idea had been to find the perfect donor, knock-out test after knock-out test, to discover who was a prime fit. After such a pony was deemed ready, they’d run yet more tests with their new augmented body before collaboration with the other departments would allow an entire squad to be commissioned.

With those new bodies, they’d surely be unstoppable on the battlefield, a complex magical power core allowing them the magical prowess of a unicorn, while maintaining the weather shaping and speed of a pegasus with the aid of internal boosters and spell matrixes. That wasn’t even counting the solid metal shell, boosted by tight-knit synthetic fiber muscles, assuming the durability of a solid earth pony, not to mention their enhanced strength.

Just have to hope my training will be enough. She thought hopefully. Then again, how do level-one combat drills and a lifetime of logistics help?

The only other knowledge she had was that Data had imparted to her. She had no doubt the pegasus would be gushing to her about it right now if she was around. On that note, Data’s absence did leave the kirin feeling a little uneasy, it was not like her to miss a day of work. All in all, she was as prepared as she could be, and with her advanced salvation merely sitting right next door, she could not afford to let any small flicker of emotion or doubt get in her way. The world was cold and cruel, she had to be too, as she assumed the world to come after the end would be no less hostile.

Either way, such things were all in her head. Products of fear, hysteria, and her wild imagination, she was sure. That said, the kirin sat at her terminal, letting out a long sigh as her mane wafted in the light breeze of a nearby fan. Occasionally glancing left, hoping she’d catch a pleasant view of Data finally showing up, time dragged by with the ambient ticking of a nearby clock. The blue pegasus was nowhere to be seen, therefore she peered over the profiles of a few suspected zebra sympathizers, the words streaming into her brain like code, just like she was used to. With a mind like hers, how could she not be ready for what was coming?

She felt like a computer already, was the prospect of genuinely becoming a machine really that bad, if it meant she could live on? She really had no idea; she simply noted the information down like always. Pretty sure some poor pony was due for arrest when the evaluation reached the right authorities. To her, it was just the same monotonous routine as every day, always waiting for that inevitable end, yet never able to see exactly when it was going to hit her.

Then it happened.

The entire room shook violently, dust trailing from the high ceiling as a moan akin to a dying monster rippled through the earth. Like some eldritch abomination was clawing its way up from under the city, metal groaned, grinding rock growled and concrete ruptured like cracked glass. Heads shot up from the depths of work, ears stood on end like timid birds, as everypony glanced around nervously for a moment. Hushed chatter filled the room as the whole place shook again, and an odd clicking started to hum from the many pipbucks some scientists wore.

Panic started to flare as Jade did her best to calm her nerves, pressing a forehoof to her chest and focusing on breathing. She thought to take charge yet was sure that may only draw attention to her plan as she glanced at the adjacent room. Seconds later an all-white unicorn with an electric blue mane, draped in a lab coat that marked her as chief scientist, came clamoring in, her face awash with fear.

“Something’s wrong! Everypony get to the lowest levels!”

That was all she exclaimed before she bolted back out the door, dust filling the corridor outside as every other pony scurried after her. Everypony, except Jade.

Where is Data, why is she not here, she’s always here!? It was the most urgent thought to pass through her mind, the only pony she cared about other than herself at that moment. No, think… She’s not here, you are. You’ve thought about this for weeks, do it!

“It’s now or never,” she muttered to herself, taking a deep breath, the air tasting oddly ironized, before she exhaled, assuming an almost zen-like concentration.

It was how she often staved off her darker side, and now served her just as well as she casually trotted to the door, scanning her forehoof to enter. It was harrowing to not see Datastream pooling over her work. While Jade’s logical side could only assume she had run with the others, leaving only tables fitted with spare parts, and the core transfer unit. The body itself was nestled inside, like a butterfly ready to emerge from its synthetic cocoon of manufactured fluids and plastic womb. She’d only seen it outside once, long before it had been installed into its incubation pod for study.

Across from it, was the transfer pod, a tall cylinder, marked by a glass door that had been prepped just in case an emergency donor suddenly became available. Two parts of her mind were at war, one that desired nothing more than to find Data, find a solution for the pair of them. While the other thought far more selfishly, boldly declaring her partnership with the mare was nothing more than a method to ensure her survival.

Who knows if she’s even here? She’s always at work, she works while sick! If she’s not here, there’s no telling where she is. It pressed coldly. But she and I… All we wanted together…

The room shook again, making the lack of time all the more evident as the latter side of her conflicted emotions won out. Now, more than ever, Jade considered herself perfectly worthy of salvation as she awkwardly climbed into the small cell, her legs folded at her side as the glass came down with a low woosh. The whole thing was slightly cramped as she wormed into the small, metal tiara above, fitted with blinking lights and wires.

Ouch… stupid thing’s tight! She thought with a wince. You really had to make it tight, didn’t you Data!?

She dismissed the bitter sting the memory of the mare she was betraying once again summoned. While the machine clipped around her horn awkwardly, not designed for a kirin, yet fitting with some force, nonetheless. The moment it was secured, the hydraulics took hold and lowered the metallic crown fully, ushering a grunt as it clamped onto her skull like a vice and began to map her neural pathway.

“Scanning… Forty-eight percent of host pathways mapped,” buzzed a tinny voice as a claxon blared over the rumbling of the room’s shuddering.

Regardless of her meditation routine, Jade’s heart was racing faster than a freight train. Her pipbuck started to click faster and faster while the very air around her seemed to grow thick and soupy. She gagged, as if her lungs were melting, suddenly feeling oddly lucid, as if her insides were becoming liquid. There was a subtle dribble from her nose as she tasted blood, but she sealed her eyes tight, took a deep breath, and begged Celestia she’d make it.

“Fifty percent,” the computer chimed at halfway, then sixty, then seventy, the buzzing voice seeming to mix with a swelling ambiance of screaming.

“Just a bit more… I... I’m sorry, Data!” Jade muttered to herself at eighty-five, sure she was going to make it with all of her brain intact. “Ninety-eight, almost…!”

There was a thud of hooves on glass, just audible above the din of destruction. Reflexively, Jade’s eyes flared open, her vision painful, and reddened by weeping blood vessels as they appeared to burst behind her quivering eyes. She wanted to scream, but she could not, feeling like her lungs had become soup. What she did see was the mare on the outside of the glass, blue fur singed, mane weeping like hot taffy as it appeared to slop from her sagging skull. Datastream, locked on the outside of the pod, stared right at Jade, the pair’s eyes weeping blood as Jade’s heart stopped.

She… Where was she, I…? The kirin had no idea what to feel, looking at the pony she cared about most, knowing she was betraying her right before her eyes. She came back… I can stop it, I… Have to!

“Power surge detected, emergency cerebral transfer initiating… Transferring now,” blurted the machine as she felt a sudden, electrical pain in her skull.

“No, wait!” she shouted, voice gargled as she reached out with a forehoof towards Data’s melting limb, body shuddering as if it had been turned to jelly in the pod.

That sensation paled in comparison to the throbbing inside her skull, as it felt as if her whole brain were trying to burst free. Before with a sharp flash and a harsh ringing in her ears, it was as if her sight were a terminal robbed of power, and the rumbling world went dark.

Urg, my head… What… What Happened…?

It was only a brief flash of moments, as if they’d been stretched out into decades but all surged by faster than lightning. She saw glimpses of her home, her street, ponies going about their normal day only to be incinerated by a blinding green flash. Then she saw Data. The cute pegasus mare she’d come to adore smiled at her deviously. Her sleek mane sweaty after a long day’s work, draped over her freckled face, while her lab coat slipped over her rump as she lay atop Jade’s chest, rubbing the kirin’s flank.

“Was it all you dreamed of, my little kirin?” she mused, a coy look in her eyes, a look Jade loved more than any. “I did so much research into pleasing a mare.”

“You know it…” Jade responded, reaching up to stroke the blue mare’s lean curves. “You always put your best into everything.”

“Yes, and you do all you can to steal it from me.” The sudden shift in tone was nearly as stark as Data’s bitter frown, right as her coat started to bubble like hot wax. “You used me for everything!”

“What, no, Data I didn’t have a choice!” Just as the mare atop her melted like hot, blue butter, Jade felt herself start to bubble, overcome by the din of screaming in her ears.

“Data, no… I’m sorry… I just had to get out!” She lurched up feeling gooey chunks of flesh slouch from her decaying bones before consciousness finally resumed. “Datastream!”

The first thing she noticed was a complete lack of sensation, her skin was cold as ice and from horn to hooves, she couldn’t feel her body at all. At least for a quick moment. Like some old, dusty computer rebooting, she soon detected the sensation of her extremities, recognizing just as fast that they were unharmed. That was where the normality stopped; however. Things felt very different, she felt more like she was feeling something intangible, something detached from herself, yet still herself all at once. The sensation would have made her head spin if not for the darkness behind her closed eyes, a gloom that was split by a band of light seconds later.

As if she’d never used them before, her eyes hinged open like the stiff doors of a decades-old stable. She caught the briefest flash of a reflection in the inky glass shell around her, as black sclera, and pupils ringed with glowing yellow irises began to scan her surroundings. In time with her scrutiny, a small readout began to scroll just outside her field of view, stark, red words chattering about air quality, temperature, and internal status. Several strings of code danced across her vision like buzzing insects, before a final message popped up.

‘Transfer complete: all functions within acceptable parameters.’ A tinny voice, weary and strained as if it had grown sleepy, buzzed in time with the words as they faded from her sight.

At that, she blinked, the flash of her eyes reflected in her cocoon doing the same, before she shook her head with a heavy, metallic clang. All she could think about next was how tight everything suddenly felt, and all of a sudden her only priority was exiting the pod. Like her mind was robotic, she systematically analyzed every detail, suspended in thick fluid, fed by wires, tubes, and cables plugged into her spine and skull. Feeling the sleek glass shell around her, beyond it the gooey cocoon that incubated her.

Accessing her magic was not as hard as she imagined it would be with the lack of a horn, the power core thrumming where her heart should be, radiating a deep aura as she did her best to focus. Admittedly, it was a tad jarring to feel the magic emanate from her eyes, rather than her forehead. Seeing her reflected gaze glow a brilliant teal as her magic activated the manual lock and opened the pod.

There was a hiss, as the glass shell hinged wide, the jelly-like mass of the outer cocoon slumping free like wet rubber, trailing strings of sticky goo as her incubation mix splashed to the floor and she did her best to take a step. Yet as if the sensation of being reborn was not authentic enough, her legs wobbled like a newborn foal’s and she staggered, slumping on her face as more of the hot liquid sloshed over her. Synthetic mane like a wet rag over her eyes, she huffed, feeling the teal shreds of her artificial womb swiftly cool as they hit the concrete, before going hard as they rapidly dried into a thin, flaky crust.

Urg… Here I wondered why foals don’t remember the day they’re born. She inwardly huffed, disgusted by the plastic-like slime. I feel like I’m gonna be sick.

Nevertheless, shifting a quivering forehoof to her face, she shoved her wet mane aside, before doing her best to hinge the front of her body up on her two weak forelimbs. She managed about halfway before slumping back down with a low growl of frustration, before looking about for anything she could use to help herself.

For a moment she dreamed Data would be there to meet her, almost like some proud mother seeing her foal walk for the first time. But the room was devoid of all but the red glow of emergency lights, rotating like a crimson tornado as a distant clackson blurred. The sound of a city in pain hummed over it, distant metal grinding, steel groaning as concrete creaked like trees caught in a storm. Then there was the screaming, she had no idea if it was her new ears that picked up the distant cacophony of pain, but she was sure she could hear what sounded like a thousand ponies being melted alive. Only, it was more akin to a memory pulled over the world like some wicked veil.

The idea made her shudder, yet her new, glossy skin didn’t crawl the same way as before. It was unnerving, to think what parts of her equinity she may have lost, but she shook off the idea. That new, cold, calculating part of her demanded she focus on what was immediately required for her survival. Therefore, her glowing gaze was swift to home in on the only functioning terminal, its screen filled with crimson error messages and blinking warnings.

“That’s funny, it should glow the standard green why is it…?'' As if the memory of just how dire things were had been lost in the lucid soup of consciousness transfer for a little too long, she finally realized the terminal was not lit up at all.

The information was projected into her own vision, just like when wearing her pipbuck!

My eyes they’re… She pressed a forehoof to them, terrified they’d feel like mere flashlights, only to feel smooth glass. I can hardly even feel my hoof against them!

Not only that, but as the illusion of red alarms slowly died, she rapidly discovered the extent of her illuminating vision, thanking the goddesses she wouldn’t be stuck so deep underground in pitch blackness. Doing her best to glance into her peripherals, a reflex she was sure she’d have to get used to, sure enough, there was a small icon for night vision in the perpetual heads-up display that now occupied her visual range. Even when she closed her eyes, eyelids like heavy blast doors sealed over her vision, she saw it. Pressing a forehoof to her face again didn’t even cause it to shift.

Of course, the whole thing would have been far more blissful if she had something good to look at. The entire lab was in utter chaos. Consoles hung from the walls only connected by sparking wires as monitors and glass lay strewn across the floor, covered in what appeared to be a millennia’s worth of dust. Glancing back to the terminal linked up to the transfer pod, she saw its consul flicker and dance with the words; ‘Transfer complete’.

To the left of that, however, was a far grimmer sight. From her vague recollection, she’d come to expect the image of her body in the initial pod, yet all she found was a gooey, lime-green puddle. Bones and clothes still stuck out like chunks of meat in a steamy soup, while she saw her pipbuck bob, covered in bloody slime. Flashes of Data melting outside the glass had her staggering again, yet while bloody-blue smears marred the pod, there was no sign of another puddle, or bones around it.

Did she get out, did she find a way? She thought, sure if anypony was smart enough, it was Data. Or did she just drain away like spilled Sparkle Cola?

She would have been sick if her new body knew how, instead pressing a forehoof to her muzzle, an oddly equine reflex her synthetic limbs didn’t seem to understand. Either way, she did her best not to think about it, staggering back to her wobbly hooves, clinging to the walls as she sidestepped the pod and slumped before the transfer terminal.

Trying her best to recall all of the details, she used her magic to enter a few commands, seeing that the cerebral transfer had indeed stopped at ninety-eight percent and that barely any life forms could be detected nearby. As her internal processing said in her vision, the air was cold, and hostile, filled with readings that would have certainly killed her if she was still biological. She had no idea how or why, surely the zebras had no weapons that could literally melt ponies alive? All of that worry was cut short as she glanced at what would often be an insignificant detail, however.

For one who spent most of her life staring at terminal screens, the date was not often something that caught her eye. Yet one glance to it now, and she went more rigid than the broken stone around her. If she still had a heart, it surely would have skipped a beat at the revelation.

The current date… It’s been almost two hundred years since I walked into the lab!

She could barely comprehend it, even with her mechanical mind racing a mile a minute. When she had blacked out, what had been only seconds for her, had been two whole centuries for the rest of Equestria! No wonder the lab looked more like an ancient tomb, no wonder her body had decayed into sludge, as odd as that was. Yet she’d heard screams, sure she’d seen flashes of the past, like it was an echo, fuzzy, but there, visually imposed over reality like a cheap video edit.

She cupped her head with two trembling forehooves, really hoping the shivering was from genuine fear, and not a flaw with her new body. To think she could have lost her ability to feel shocked at such a revelation was mildly terrifying, far too extreme in the direction of calm she often strived for. Yet like some cruel master, the universe was not done, and as she dared study a little deeper, the next part absolutely floored her.

The trackers for several of her old colleagues, and even a few rivals were still active! There was also a note, one meant for her! As if someone had known she was hidden here, a glowing cocoon, a light of rebirth in the dark depths of a cursed city. Yet like most of her new revelations, time had not been so kind.

Even the note was time-stamped from roughly seventy years prior. Either way, she gingerly reached out a forehoof, tapping the screen to activate a recording linked to the notification. What followed was a buzzing crackle, as if a storm of radiation were messing with the speakers, before a tinny voice finally spoke up.

“I know you’re alive, Kiddo. No way you’d let yourself be taken out by the bombs.” The voice seemed older, yet enthusiastic, the kind somepony may expect from some adventure on early morning cartoons, yet broken by static and small pops as they went on.

“I’m not sure what bolt hole you crawled into, but right now it’s time to shit or get off the pot! The damn game is afoot! I’ve already cleared my share of pieces from the board, now I need you to start your turn.” Jade cocked her head, sure she should know exactly who this was, yet the whole thing escaped her, an infuriating fact as she recalled the small hint of her transfer that had been lost with her old body.

“There’s not many of us left right now. Coltvert has still eluded me, but I’ll find him. That’s not why I am recording this message though. I’m not sure what your plans were, but you need to get in the game, and now! Something big is happening near Las Pegasus, and I’m not able to head out that way for the foreseeable future.”

So, some cities are still alive? Doing her best to stand as the recording played, Jade considered the fact that the world may not be so lifeless after all. At least until the recording concluded.

“I am not sure when we’ll see each other next but know that I may have to kill you. This is your one warning. I’m going to be the last one standing, so fair warning. Sincerely, Agent Lockedheart.”

Her ears whirred like small radar dishes as she finally managed to stand up straight, the name one of the few things in the message that resonated with her.

“Agent Lockedheart, that old bastard from Trottingham?” Despite everything going on, the synthetic pony smiled to herself. “If he’s alive, who else survived, after all this time?”

Before she knew it, she was walking again, out through the ruins of her old lab, and up the rubble-strewn tower of a broken stairway. The elevator was surely gone by now, lost to time, yet the second she was close enough to the surface, her heads-up display chimed like a built-in pipbuck.

‘San Pransisco Crater’ was what the area was apparently called, and as she peered upwards through a large fissure rent into the earth as if by monstrous talons, she knew why. The sky was beset by a baleful green glow, the ruined faces of buildings constructed like black monoliths to weather an assault, looming like dark gods over her. Lightning flashed and storm clouds swirled, as the huge spires shot upwards like monstrous needles into the turbulent clouds. Then there were the sounds, not screams, at least, not equine screams. Jade saw the red marks on her built-in E.F.S, glimpsed the shapes of things scuttling in the gloom, and her ears drooped.

“Okay,” she muttered to herself. “Getting out of here may be harder than I thought.”

Foot Note: Level Up.

New perk activated: Android - It may have taken away your equanimity, but hey, at least you survived the end of the world; gain the following attributes:

+10 Science

+20% Limb Resistance

+15 Rad Resist Water Breathing

+5 DT Poison and Chem Immunity Fire Resist

-30% EWS Resistance